HRC originally praised the news that the BSA planned to remove its national gay ban and place the decision with local troop leaders, but announced Thursday that the change wasn’t good enough and launched a letter campaign.

“While it is good news that the onerous national ban will come to an end, it’s not acceptable to abdicate nondiscrimination standards to local units,” HRC President Chad Griffin said in a statement. “It’s akin to a national restaurant chain saying that it will not discriminate at its corporate headquarters, but allow local restaurants to discriminate at will.

“Make no mistake, this policy creates a separate but equal system where some troops welcome all members and others still turn gay Scouts away. This problem will only be solved when BSA proactively institutes a national nondiscrimination policy that prohibits anti-gay discrimination so that no young American or family is excluded from the proud tradition of Scouting.”

HRC announced it will penalize companies who donate to the Scouts, even if the organization’s Board of Directors votes next week to leave decisions about allowing gays up to local troops.